By: Dean Vaglia | Macomb Chronicle | Published November 20, 2023
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — The Macomb Township Board of Trustees prepared the township for 2024’s elections by selecting the township recreation center as its early voting site at the board’s Nov. 8 meeting.
“This is an exciting time for voting in Michigan,” said Kristi Pozzi, Macomb Township clerk. “Early voting has been practiced in other states for a long time now, so we’re excited to launch this new option for our voters.”
Early voting was approved by Michigan voters in the 2022 elections. In Macomb Township, two weeks of early voting will begin on the second Saturday prior to the election and run until the Sunday before Election Day. Communities in Oakland County held early voting trials for its 2023 local elections, with communities there opting for sharing early voting sites while Macomb County communities have opted to host municipality-specific early voting sites next year.
“We had the opportunity to send some of our employees to Oakland County for this last election … and they said it was well received by all the voters,” Pozzi said. “They were actually thankful that they were able to tabulate their ballot ahead of time before Election Day.”
The recreation center was chosen as Macomb Township’s early voting site as Pozzi expects about one-third of the township’s nearly 73,600 voters will opt for early in-person voting.
Ballots cast via early in-person voting are not counted until 8 p.m. on election night.
While the township is only planning to have one early voting site for all precincts in 2024, state law allows for multiple early voting sites if a municipality so chooses.
M-59 corridor study participation
Macomb Township is taking part in a study to determine the future of the M-59 corridor.
Working with other M-59 communities, the township is serving as the pass-through agency to work with consultants and handle the funds for the undertaking of this project.
“The results of this phase of the report will be a high-level (look at) what could Hall Road be in the future, or what it should be,” Macomb Township Supervisor Frank Viviano said. “And then the communities involved have to get together and decide if we want to continue to pursue anything that looks like the next steps of the plan. Do we want to have some kind of corridor authority where we’re working in conjunction with each other?
“We don’t know what the next steps will be, but it’s worth the effort to at least look at Hall Road. It’s our main artery in Macomb County more so than any other, and if it becomes stagnant and businesses remain unfilled … how do we help those landowners fill that space for the betterment of our collective communities?” Viviano said.
The total funds allocated to the project are $45,000 split between $36,832.50 in federal funds and $8,167.50 in local funds, with the latter also being split, with $5,000 coming from Macomb County and $452.50 coming from each of the six participating municipalities and Connect Macomb (formerly the Sterling Heights Regional Chamber of Commerce).
Consulting firms WSP and OHM Advisors will undertake the study. OHM is already working with Macomb Township on a visualization project for Broughton Road.